Serving for a Season, Trusting God for the Future
A final reflection by Elie Haddad as ABTS President
As ABTS prepares for a leadership transition in a few weeks, we pause to give thanks for God’s faithfulness over the past two decades under the leadership of Elie Haddad. In this reflection, Elie shares how God led him and Mireille back to Lebanon, the joys and challenges of serving at ABTS, and his hopes and prayers for the future. His words celebrate God’s work through the ABTS community and its partners, and invite us to trust Him for what lies ahead.
When Mireille and I were living in Canada, I was working in the corporate world while serving actively in our local Arabic-speaking church. Sensing God’s call to be better equipped, I began theological studies alongside my work. Over time, God stirred my heart toward a ministry-based role.
After completing my degree, we were invited to return to Lebanon to serve at ABTS. This was something we had never imagined. The decision was both the most difficult and the easiest we have ever made. It was difficult because it meant leaving the country we loved and returning to one we had fled during the civil war. It was easy because God’s call was unmistakably clear. We returned as staff with Canadian Baptist Ministries, seconded to ABTS, and only after arriving did God give us a renewed love for Lebanon and a vision for His work in the region.
Elie and Mireille’s Commission
From the beginning, God surrounded ABTS with gifted faculty, dedicated staff, and committed partners. Many knew far more about theological education than I did, and that was a gift. My role became one of supporting the people God had called here, recognizing their gifts, encouraging their passions, and helping create the environment where they could flourish in service to the Church. Leading ABTS has been both challenging and rewarding. With limited resources, the enormous task of equipping leaders for the Church across the Arab world, and a highly unstable and uncertain context, this journey has stretched me in every way. In the corporate world, I had learned that one should never be promoted beyond their level of competence. Yet for twenty years at ABTS, it often felt as though I was serving far beyond my own competence. I relied daily on God’s wisdom, provision, and strength, and on the great team that He had brought together at ABTS.
Over the past 20 years, we have seen God transform lives through ABTS. Leaders from across the Arab world have come to be equipped for effective ministry, often carrying heavy burdens from conflict, displacement, or persecution. Through their formation here, God has healed wounds, renewed hope, and ignited passion for His mission. This transformation has taken place alongside a commitment to high academic standards. We train leaders to think critically and engage deeply with Scripture and their contexts. In a region where unexamined assumptions can easily shape faith and practice, this ability to think biblically and critically is essential for healthy ministry.
During the Students Residency
Prayer Circle of Faculty and Graduates
We have also invested heavily in the growth and transformation of our faculty and staff. Their ongoing development, both academically and spiritually, ensures that those who teach and serve at ABTS are themselves continually shaped by God’s word, equipped for their roles, and growing in ministry effectiveness.
Lebanon has continued to serve as a strategic gateway for ministry into the Arab world. This location enables ABTS to partner with churches across the MENA region to equip their leaders in ways that are both contextually relevant and missionally effective. Graduates have returned to serve faithfully as pastors, church planters, counselors, and community leaders, sometimes in the most difficult of contexts.
The ABTS community of faculty, staff, and students has been a daily witness to God’s grace. Beyond classrooms and offices, we have truly shared life together, walking side by side through both joys and sorrows. The depth of this community life is something I will dearly miss. This shared life has been a constant reminder that theological education is not merely about knowledge. It is about being formed into Christlikeness for the sake of God’s mission.
God has also led ABTS through significant growth. From a few residential students, we have expanded into non-formal training, online degrees, and hybrid programs that allow leaders to remain in their ministry contexts while studying. Our academic offerings now span from non-formal initiatives to a PhD program.
Collaboration has been essential to our mission. Many of our most significant initiatives, such as the PhD program and the Arabic digital library, have been the fruit of regional collaboration with partner institutions who share our vision and invest in it with expertise, resources, and prayer. Working together has allowed us to accomplish far more than we could on our own.
The establishment and growth of our library and research center, and the development of the Arabic digital library, have opened access to theological resources that were once unavailable in Arabic. These developments were never the result of one person’s effort. They reflect the faithfulness of our team and the prayers and support of our global partners.
We have also faced difficult seasons together. The convergence of Lebanon’s economic collapse, the Beirut port explosion, and the COVID-19 pandemic tested our resilience. Yet, God sustained the ministry through the creativity of our leaders, the perseverance of our faculty and staff, the unwavering commitment of our students, and the faithful support of our partners. Every crisis we faced created new opportunities for ministry. In a region where instability is constant, each conflict, crisis, or disruption has required the Church to strengthen its prophetic voice and to act as an agent of hope. This reality places added responsibility on ABTS as we equip leaders for these churches. These crises reminded us that God’s mission is not dependent on stable circumstances. In fact, the gospel often shines brightest in dark times.
ABTS Staff Outing
Library and Research Center Construction Site
Innovation has been part of ABTS’s identity, not for novelty’s sake but for mission. God has enabled us to reshape our curriculum to integrate character formation, ministry skills, and contextual engagement. We have developed assessments that value spiritual growth and ministry impact as much as academic achievement. We have formed partnerships built on mutuality, learning from one another across cultures and contexts. Technology has become a means to connect and equip leaders who could never relocate to Lebanon.
Some have asked how I will feel when things change after I leave. My conviction is that leadership is stewardship, not ownership. ABTS belongs to God. Each of us is entrusted with a season of service, and then we pass the baton to others whom God has called. Change is both inevitable and healthy. The mission remains the same, but God raises new leaders with fresh perspectives and gifts. I rejoice in knowing that ABTS will continue to grow and adapt under Wissam’s leadership.
As ABTS steps into this new chapter, my hope is that it will remain a place where leaders are formed holistically. I pray it will remain attentive to the changing realities of the Arab world, willing to innovate while anchored in Scripture and the gospel. I also pray that the spirit of community and partnership will deepen, so that ABTS will both serve and be shaped by the Church in the region.
As for me, I will continue investing in theological education, ministry organizational development, and missional leadership across the region in new ways. I will deeply miss the ABTS community, but I leave with my heart full, grateful for God’s faithfulness in this season. My heart will remain closely tied to ABTS. This ministry has been a cherished part of my life, and will always be part of my prayers.